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Thursday, July 12, 2012

the science of calf feeding

Early morning run to Alpine for a new bottle and powdered milk replacer. Raising this little sucker will be rather labor intensive the next three months. Each feeding has to be made fresh. Water heated to 120°, mixed with precisely measured powder, then cooled to 100° before serving. So far he is showing no sign of the scours. The new bull calf is called Ben (Big Ben when he turns into a giant). 87,94,70,0,B,0

BEN and BIG BEN (when grown up) wonderful name dude . That Alpine-Terlingua gravel oil contract is going to last a while, runs will affect vechicles brakes with little rocks as did with ours yesterday while going through. Observed muddy dirt roads around and by FL and by the closed trailer restaurant by the mail boxes. The area seems still pretty dry, very few wild animals observed in this trip this time .New young positive faces by the Big Bend Resort Adventures restaurant and the River Tours businesses. Loved it .Missed Jess there at the Chisos Mining Motel.

Are you sure you have to be so precise with the temperature? We used to just have it warm enough to be able to dissolve completely. Maybe it its some newer stuff that needs a higher temperature.....130 I don't remember ever getting it that hot.

Goat milk for the little one, if you can possibly find it--or find it in enough quantity. I lived on a boy's ranch in the early 70s when the ranchers were killing all their calves in protest of the low beef and high feed prices. A few ranchers sent their newborns to us--some just hours old--in big semi-trailer loads.We lost dozens of them until we learned more about bottle feeding them. The one thing I have learned for sure since them, when in doubt, let mother nature do it. That's why I say use goat milk instead of milk replacer if you can.

The upside is that for as long as they lived, they would come to us and let us hand-feed them treats, sometimes following us around like dogs to be scratched.

If he gets the scours, juat mix a raw egg in the milk for each feeding. It is a good ol farm remedy that works. We raised many calves by not heating the milk at a perfect temperature and only feeding twice a day!